A Writer Needs to Feed Her Imagination

I talked to a fun bookclub on Monday night by phone. I'm not great at hearing on speaker phones, but I could tell those ladies of the South Zumbra Church Book Club were having a good time. And not just because they were talking to me although I'm sure that put a little extra zing in the meeting - getting to quiz the author of the book they'd read. Actually they picked my book to read because the mother of the beautiful model on the cover is a member of the club and she picked the book. I told her one thing for sure - they couldn't knock the cover. It's perfect for the story. I asked them how they picked their books and they had a dozen different ways. They'd just read Gone with the Wind not long ago and I thought that sounded like a great idea. To revisit some old favorite books. I read Gone with the Wind in one long Thanksgiving weekend when I was 13 or 14.

Is there any better way to read a book than to just lie down on your bed or sit in your favorite reading chair and wallow in the words until you've read every last one? I can't do that very often these days. Too many chores and responsibilities and books of my own I want to write. But I do think it's vital for a writer to read. That's the advice I always give young people, but you know it's good advice for any writer. I've been reading Stephen King's book On Writing. He says nobody can be a good writer without being a voracious reader. He carries a book everywhere he goes and reads in minutes snatched out of a busy schedule. I need to do that. Steal a moment here and there to read more books. A writer needs to feed her imagination and what better way than to read and read some more. Reading brings new ideas your way, and King made the point that all the books don't have to be great. That reading a bad book can bolster your confidence. That nearly every aspiring writer has at one time or another read a book and said "I can write a better book than that." And then he adds that reading a really great book can inspire us to think I want to write a book that good. So it's a no lose situation.

Of course I have to admit I don't stick it out through a book I think is really bad. I close it up and find another one. There are just too many books out there to wade through a book I'm not enjoying. Unless of course it's a research book, then I wade on in. So just a thought or two on reading. What do you think? Do you think you have to read to become a better writer? Do you ever give up on a book and start another one?

Okay here are the quotes I promised last Wednesday.

"You know you're old when you've lost all your marvels." --Merry Browne (Could she have any better first name for that quote? And I don't want to ever lose all my marvels.)

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." --Beverly Sills

I hope you are going to lots of places worth going and that even if you can't take any shortcuts that you will enjoy the road and discover plenty of marvels along the way.

One last note - I'll be up in New Albany, Indiana for a booksigning at the Heaven Help Us Bookstore on Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. If you're in the area, come on over and say hi. They're celebrating five years of serving the Christian community in that area.

Oh yeah - another really last note - If you want a chance to win my book, The Outsider, go visit Rose McCauley's blog, http://www.rosemccauley.blogspot.com. She does a book give-away every month and this month it's mine. What better way to get a book than free!!

Characters and the Things They Do

Hi everybody. I'm a little early this weekend, but Sunday promises to be busy. Besides catching up my blog is a good excuse not to be peeling apples the way I should be doing. That wind last weekend blew bushels off my trees. I sneaked over to my neighbor's house and left a box full on her porch. I'm thinking about finding somebody else to give another bushel to. Then I can get back to figuring out how I'm going to get the rest of them picked and canned or given away. They're nice apples and we've been eating them fast as we can. Us and the deer. My mama deer has started to feel so at home out in my yard now that she just looks irritated if I come outside before she's through eating. She'll run away if I insist, but she doesn't really want to. That bodes ill for her when hunting season starts. Not from me, but from some hunter in the area.

But in spite of the deer's appetite - and my dog, Dub, eats them too - there are still a lot of apples left. I'm hoping no more near hurricane force winds come along to knock them off before I can get some of them picked.

I talked to a bookclub in Washington state last night. They were just getting started with their bookclub and were having their second meeting. I have always wanted to be part of a bookclub, but now I'm not sure I'd have time to get the books read before the meetings. Still what could be more fun than reading a book and then talking about it with other readers? My sisters and Mom and I do that sometimes. We don't always agree on which books are best, but it's fun talking about the different ones we read. My oldest sister has been keeping a list of the books she's read for years. I started doing that a few years ago, but I wish I had done it forever the way she has just so I could keep up with what I've read. Lately I haven't read enough fiction. A lot of history, but not so much fiction for the fun of it.

Stephen King says if you don't read, you shouldn't try to write. And I can't argue with that. I tell the young wanna-be writers I meet that the best thing they can do to prepare themselves to write is read. I don't think they believe me, but I know it was true for me. I'm thankful for the years when I was a teen and had extra reading time to let the words of other writers bury themselves in my brain while I absorbed how they managed to put together those words to make a story that entranced me. I am going to carve out more reading time somehow. I need those fresh words of other writers to keep my own writing fresh.

What I'm really wanting to write about tonight is one of the questions a bookclub member asked me last night. She wanted to know why one of the characters in my book, The Outsider, had done what she did. Why I let what happened to the character happen. That's a good question. I'm sure if you've read very many books, you've read a story where the character did something you didn't like. I certainly have. I've read books where I wanted to tear out the last chapter because I wanted a different ending. But as long as the author can make me believe that yes, that is what happened whether I like it or not, I'm okay with it. And that's what I try to do with my stories. The Outsider is set in 1812. Life was different then. Fevers were deadly. Women had few options for independent living. Most religions had strict moral codes. War was as much a struggle against the elements as against the enemy. I wanted to keep my characters within the history of the era.

But the real truth of why any of my characters do whatever they do is because that's just what they do. When I'm writing, the characters' lives unfold in my mind. At times I point them in this or that direction, but once I get them going along my story road, sometimes I'm simply along for the ride. I might have a general idea of where they're headed. Especially my historical books like The Outsider where I must fit my story into a history timeline. But I didn't have that with my Hollyhill books. Story ideas developed through Jocie and the other characters as I wrote. I didn't plan Wes saying he was from Jupiter until he said so. I didn't plan Aunt Love's story until I was writing it. So far my characters have come to life enough in my head that I've been able to do that. That's not to say I don't do a little guiding as I go along to keep from getting completely off track with my story. I suppose it's a delicate balance letting your characters tell you their stories and letting them take over your story. And you know, after I wrote that sentence, I'm not sure which way is best. What do you think?

Of course, every writer has his or her own method and way to write. What works for one might not work for another. And if I had wanted to, I could have told Wes that saying he was from Jupiter was just too crazy, but the story wouldn't have been as much fun and you wouldn't have gotten to know Wes nearly as well if I'd done that. And what happens in The Outsider fits the time and the history and the characters. I hope I was able to make any of you who may have read it believe that. That's the real trick - to make up a story that readers believe.

I'm available to talk to bookclubs anytime, so if you pick one of my books to read and would like me to give your club a call during your meeting, just contact me from my website, http://www.annhgabhart.com/.

Hope you have a great Sunday. I might tell another Quartet Convention story on Wednesday.